The annual business meeting, followed by the annual dinner, of the American Guild of Organists took place the latter part of May, at Hotel Lorraine, in New York City. The following officers were elected: Warden, Walter Henry Hall; subwarden, S. Tudor Strang; chaplain, Charles Cuthbert Hall, D.D.; secretary, A. Ray Tyler; registrar, G. Waring Stebbins; treasurer, Frank Taft; librarian, Samuel A. Baldwin; auditing committee, Whitney Coombs, John Spencer Camp; council (term expiring 1902), J. Remington Fairlamb; council (term expiring, 1903), Sumner Salter, Clement R. Gale, J. Warren Andrews, Will. Macfarlane, Charles T. Ives.
At the dinner speeches were made by Sumner Salter; Walter Henry Hall; Rev. Roderick Terry, D.D.; Homer N. Bartlett; Prof. H. W. Parker; W. Kaffenberger; Mr. Gray; N. J. Covey, and R. Huntington Woodman. Dr. Gerrit Smith was toast-master.
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The female organist of a Utica church has eloped and married a fourteen-year-old boy who pumped the organ. The affair has taken the wind out of the choir.—Binghamton Republican.
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Mr. Hamilton C. Macdougall having resigned his position as organist of Harvard Church, Brookline (a suburb of Boston), to accept a position at Wellesley College, the committee of that church have been overwhelmed with applicants. The position is a desirable one, with a fine Hutchings organ containing an echo organ.
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“Pa, what are the stops of an organ for?”
“They are for varying the tone of the instrument. One causes a flute tone, another a deep tone, and so on.”
“I see. Has the hand-organ stops?”
“No, my son. There is no stop to a hand-organ till you tell the man you will hit him with a brick if he doesn’t move off.”—Musical Record.
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Mr. Dudley Buck, organist of Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, gave a lecture on “Music as a Language,” at St. Catherine’s Hall, in that city the first of June.
Captain (to Stowaway): “So, you young rascal, you ran away from home, did you? You ought to be thrashed for leaving home, and thrashed again for getting aboard ship without permission.”
Stowaway: “Please, sir, my sister commenced takin’ organ lessons an’ practicin’ scales on the organ, an’—and I thought there would be no organs on ship”—
Captain: “Come to my arms, my son, I had a musical sister once myself.”—Ex.
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The new organ for the Boston Music Hall, being constructed by George S. Hutchings & Co., is approaching completion. It contains the largest scale open diapason, 32 feet, in the pedal organ, ever constructed. The pipes of the lower notes are enormous, and the tone is extremely effective. This organ will not be as large as one would expect for such a prominent hall, but everything in the organ is being constructed on a scale to fit the place, and volume of tone will not be lacking.
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A large three-manual electric organ was exhibited (privately) at the factory of Hook & Hastings Company recently. The action was very light and responsive and the tone of the various stops pleasing. Mr. Hastings also showed a small electric bellows, such as is used in his electric action, which had been caused to inflate and collapse by machinery over a million and a half times. The bellows did not show a sign of wear from its severe test.
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Organist: “Certainly we can tell you all about organ-swells. An organ-swell is a young man who comes in ten minutes late to service, takes off his gloves, dusts the organ-seat with a scented handkerchief, and then plays fantasias from Italian operas.”— Musical Herald.
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They put up an organ at a county-fair and invited all their local talents to exhibit it. The first played the “Hallelujah Chorus,” the second the “Dead March in Saul”; the next day a new-comer played the “Dead March in Saul” and another the “Hallelujah Chorus”; and thus it went on. Finally, a member of the committee hit on an expedient which should do away with the monotony without offending the artists. He put a sign on the instrument: “Visitors, please not Händel.”—Ex.
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The new organ in the First Congregational Church of Montclair, N. J., built by the Austin Organ Company, was inaugurated by Mr. R. Huntington Woodman, on March 22d. The organ has three manuals and echo organ, with 44 speaking stops, 12 combination pistons, and 8 combination pedals.
